The present invention relates to distributing subscription-based software and, in particular, to a computer system for securely distributing game software.
In a gaming environment, it has been typical to have network-based games, called Massive Multiplayer Role Playing Games (MMRPGs), which are paid for by means of a subscription fee for some time interval or fixed usage. In these games, thousands of players, each having their own Internet connection, interact on a world server or set of servers. Players can see and interact with one another and with the machine-controlled characters, such as monsters and other permanent characters, etc., that are in the game. Some of the more popular MMRPGs are Ultima Online by Electronic Arts, Inc., Everquest by Sony Online Entertainment, Asheron's Call by Turbine Games, and Half-life by Valve.
FIG. 1 is an example block diagram of a typical MMRPG environment. Typically in an MMRPG, a game player 100 registers with a game server 130 to pay for the player's subscription and establishes an account with billing information and a password. The game server 130 then sends initial game client software 140 to be downloaded onto the game client system 110. This downloading process typically takes a long time, for example, upwards of 10 minutes for 600 MB of data using a fast broadband connection. Once the game player 100 has successfully registered and downloaded the game client software 140, the game client system 110 can then log into the network 120 and initiate a session or other type of communication between the game client system 110 and a game server 130. The game player typically logs into the game server 130 with the account and password information setup during the registration process that uniquely identifies that player, for example. Once communication is established, the game server 130 and the game client system 110 exchange messages containing session data 150 that is used to play the game.
The messages exchanged may or may not be sent using a secure communication protocol. If the data is sent without sufficient security, then hackers (malicious or otherwise) can intercept these messages, affecting both the playability of the game and, in effect, “stealing” intellectual property that the game player has paid for. Thus, managing the intellectual property rights of digital information obtained through a paid-subscription download is a challenging problem, especially when the subscribers possess technical sophistication as is often the case with computer game players.